Notes on Burnt Norton

Burnt Norton

II
. . . .

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.
I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where.
And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
The inner freedom from the practical desire,
The release from action and suffering, release from the inner
And the outer compulsion, yet surrounded
By a grace of sense, a white light still and moving,
Erhebung without motion, concentration
Without elimination, both a new world
And the old made explicit, understood
In the completion of its partial ecstasy,
The resolution of its partial horror.
Yet the enchainment of past and future
Woven in the weakness of the changing body,
Protects mankind from heaven and damnation
Which flesh cannot endure.
Time past and time future
Allow but a little consciousness.
To be conscious is not to be in time
But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden,
The moment in the arbour where the rain beat,
The moment in the draughty church at smokefall
Be remembered; involved with past and future.
Only through time time is conquered.

. . . .

From the Four Quartets - T.S. Eliot


In the end only mathematicians, musicians, magicians and poets can deal with "Erhebung without motion,...", at T S Eliot's "still point of the turning world", e-motionless.


Translations of "Erhebung":

Erhebung {f}
levy
raise
rising
census
survey
inquiry
raising
upheaval
uprising
charging
elatedness
exaltation
ennoblement
rise [in the ground]
geol. elevation
Erhebung {f} [von Daten]
elicitation
höchste Erhebung {f}
highest peak
geol. highest point
geol. highest elevation
primäre Erhebung {f}
field research
statistische Erhebung {f}
poll
survey
Erhebung {f} der Klage
commencement of action
Erhebung {f} von Zöllen
collection of duties
Erhebung {f} von Steuern
collection of taxes
Fehler {m} bei der Erhebung
error in survey

German term or phrase: feierliche Erhebung der Gebeine

From a brief account of the life of Die Heilige Elisabeth, Landgräfin von Thüringen (1206 1231), canonised 1227: Am 1. Mai 1236 fand die feierliche Erhebung der Gebeine der Heiligen in Anwesenheit von Friedrich II. statt.

... not able to find much beyond "elevation of the bones"

English translation:ceremonial disinterment of the bones
This was the last stage in the process of canonization. The saint's body was exhumed (the incorruptibility of the body was one possible criteria of sainthood) and the remains were reburied or even dismembered and distributed as holy relics.